The Puddles

We are going home! Hallelujah! Ben has been stellar throughout all of this until they went to remove two knots at the top and bottom of his incision. Suddenly he had a meltdown. All he needed to do was have two fishing lines knots cut and he melted.  We didn’t know that they were going to do that today, so we hadn’t talked to Ben about it.  He kept saying, “Let me think about it. Let me just think about it first.” Poor guy.  The easiest of all of the procedures and he was just plan tired of being poked.

But we are done. He is taking laps with Dad around the floor. I am being paged by Ben.

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It is the end of Day 5.  Do you want to know when it time to go home? When your son wears his name tag off.  They are having to scrounge up a new one tonight.  The day has been somewhat uneventful.  No major tests.  We did have several visitors which brightened Ben’s day.  Ms. Shirley , Mr. Lawrence, and Ms. Jan came for a visit today.  They sat with Ben for an hour while I took a break.  It was good that they came when they did. I was exhausted.  My morning coffee caffeine load had run dry and I was needing some caffeine to finish out the day until 9pm.

The moment of the day was when Ben shooed me out the door after I told him that I was leaving.  He said, “I’ll be fine. GO!” Ben really likes the balloons that they brought but I am slowly loosing my patience with them.  He thinks that they are a batting toy of some sort. But they are cute!

We go in for some tests tomorrow.  This may be our ticket home, so I hope that they turn out well.

We met a friend tonight. Her name is Shelby and she has been here for two weeks.  She has a condition where she was born with only half of her heart.  She is five and has a John Deere peddle tractor that she rides all over the 15th floor.  Ben had his police car and Shelby had her tractor and they made a lap around the 15th floor.  Ben hardly said two words to her, but he said that he was so excited to have a hospital friend. He is planning on asking her to ride with him tomorrow.

We came back from our ride and took a hospital bath that includes cleaning our hair.  Ben said that he feels so much better now. We have our jammies on and we are getting ready for bed.  Dad should be here soon and then I am off to bed as well.  Sorry there are not any pictures today.  Hopefully Dad will upload some tonight on his blog.  Until the morning . . . good night!

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When in the midst of drama, you tend to forget about the world around you.  Consumed by the events that we have been dealing with has been difficult but we are starting to peer out into the world and think past the moment. So many kind people have asked about Madie and Ainsley.  They are great.  They have been spoiled by so many people lately.  My mom called to say that they just dropped them off with the third set of adults prepared to spoil the heck out of my girls.  Marsha and Lonnie are at the house right now.  I am almost afraid to call and check on everybody since I am sure that I would just interrupt a perfectly good time.

They spent the weekend at Grandma and Papa G.’s house.  Papa pulled out the yard decorations and the girls apparently helped set up “Candyland” as the girls called it.

Aunt Deb and Uncle Dave bought a purple Christmas tree for the girls to decorate.  Isn’t it pretty? It was a very special something for the girls.

Marsha and Lonnie haven’t seen the girls in a year.  Ainsley used to go over almost everyday to see Marsha at the church office and give her a big hug.  Marsha hasn’t had that for a while, so I think Ainsley will enjoy the next few days giving Marsha extra cuddles.

My Madie is such a worrier that she is stressing out about the family and doesn’t even realize it.  I think that is certainly what made her sick on Friday night.  She seems fine now.  They even went to church this morning.  My mom said that they were talking about BenBen at mom’s church and Madie had her hand up to contribute to the conversation.  Unfortunately, the Pastor didn’t see Madie’s hand in the air or I am sure that Pastor Joe would have called on her to say something.

I can’t wait for a typical Saturday morning where we are all in our bed with morning cartoons on while we cuddle with everyone.  Soon enough, it will be that way again.

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I come to the hospital this morning and Ben is dressed and eating breakfast.  He looks a lot like his old self.  He took several laps with daddy this morning all ready and had an xray.

His temperature went up a little last night to about 100 degrees.  Not a big deal, but something to watch.  His blood pressure is still high.  He dinged the bell this morning at 145/80.  The nurse has a plan to try to do a better job of controlling his blood pressure, but we still have to get approval from the doctors.  His pressure is still high in part because his heart hasn’t learned to settle down from working so hard prior to surgery.  It is still a work in progress.

There is now some talk that we may not be able to get home tomorrow. They can’t get us scheduled to go to the echo tomorrow.  So we may have to wait until Tuesday.  Hospitals are like that.  You never know when something will happen.  We are just one small part of a huge mechanism.

On another note . . . I am having some awesome adventures riding the metrorail.  I rode by myself last night.  Not too bad. I saw my first rat, and a very nice young man sat next to me.  Of course on first sight this young man could cause someone to grab her purse and hold it tighter (all in black with kind of that gangster look).  And yet he asked me, “Mamn, may I please sit next to you?” . . . some small talk . . . and then,”Thank you for letting me sit next to you.”  I learned to not judge but to still be careful.

The world is good and we may get more visitors today. Ben would like that. And the Kennels arrive to take the girls.  They are all so excited.  I told Marsha to not be surprised if she gets lots of cuddles. More later . . .

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We took a trip to the library on the 16th floor. Ben didn’t want to walk but he did decide to ride his police car up the elevator to the library.

He checked out a couple of books while in the car and a couple of videos.   I think that we have done a great job of wearing him out tonight.  No nap.  Hopefully he will sleep through the night and come out well rested.

I am leaving him with Dad.  So all of the rules change. Ride in the bed is ok. Watch anything on tv.  The world is good with Dad.

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This is a picture of Ben and Madie from 2006.  This is a totally different experience this time. His pain management is under control.  He looks great this time.  The color is in his cheeks.  He is up and moving.  Ben is a different boy this time.

Thank you God.

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It is past 12:00pm and we are waiting on lunch.  We have not had anything to eat or drink since last night.  We had the chest tubes removed.  We had an xray taken. We are waiting to have the tests read so that we know whether we can eat or not.

Hurry up!  Hurry up! Hurry up!  Ben is ready to eat and drink.

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Ben has had his eye of this Little Tykes Police Car since we took a tour before the surgery.  So as soon as we got down here we grabbed it and parked it in the room.

Ben took his first lap around the cardio floor this morning.  We went to the fish tank and checked it out.  We tried to find the shark that is suppose to be in there, but we couldn’t find it. Yet.  We are still making laps and checking out the tank.

Ben is completely without wires now (except for the IV port). So he is free to move about the floor.

He has to eat, pee, and move.  So we are working on that.

Yesterday, he wanted to talk on the walkie-talkie in the car, so Grandma G. moved the car to the top of the table.  He had so much fun.

Tomorrow we are going to wear real clothes and keep working on our jobs.  We don’t have any appointments until Monday.  And if the tests all go well on Monday we may get to go home.

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Chest tubes out. New jammies on. The boy is ready to go.  He quickly climbed out of the bed, so that he could look out of the window at the water wall.  This is as close as mom wants to get to the window.  I hate the 15th floor.  Let’s face it.  I would hate the 2nd floor. Ben climbed up on the couch faster than I could tell him not too.

He has been waiting a long time to look out of the window.

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The doctor just came in and took out Ben’s chest tubes.  He now has three belly buttons.  Cute!  The boy did great.  No flinching and just a little whining.  Perfectly normal.  Just ask any person who has had a chest tube yanked out of his body.  Ben did awesome.

When they were done, Ben said he didn’t want anymore yanking, pulling, or tying.  Deal.  At least for the next hour.

He has his ipod touch on and is watching Bolt.  We will go for an xray soon to make sure that his innards look good.  We will go soon.

On the other hand, Madie has decided to start vomiting. Poor thing.  I think that she is under so much stress right now.  She has had to be good for an entire week.  No backtalking, no refusing to do chores, no typical almost-eight year old behavior.  Grandma G. is on her way to Aunt Deb’s house to rescue Madie, Ainsley, and Aunt Debra.  Aunt Debra has had a rough night with poor Madie.  She needs a break too.  Grandma G. is taking the girls home with her.  The Kennels arrive Sunday at the house to take over parent duty.  I hope Marsha and Lonnie are well rested.  Take your advil now Marsha!

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